Mr. Nabil has the unusual political position in Egypt of being a pacifist as well as a champion of Israel, often praising its democracy, educational standards and innovations.

Finding the blog in question doesn’t take much time. Andreassen has either been too lazy to check the details here, or he has wilfully omitted the implication of this case. The story is jumping up and down and screaming in his face about how independent thought is alive in Egypt, and of how post-revolustionary Egypt strives to silence it. And somehow, Mr. Andreassen misses the point entirely.

The Norwegian public remains consistently uninformed about the extent of Israel-hatred and sheer anti-Semitism in Muslim societies. If for no other reason, Israeli politics and culture will remain completely bizarre and inexplicable to Norwegian readers.

Egyptians, having to spell this out really hurts, speak with different voices on the issue of Israel. But Norwegians will never now.

Just for the sake of comparison, member of Knesset Hanin Zoabi supports Hamas’ use of weapons against Israeli civilians. Egypt jails someone for supporting a country Egypt has a peace treaty with. Israel has a representative in parliament openly siding with the enemies of her own country.

Two neighboring countries. Norwegians will rally to boycott one of them for it’s unforgivable levels of oppression.